Meet The Bloggers: Luke Gaines

Hi, my name is Luke Gaines and I am Carolina Housing’s summer’s video production intern! You’ll be seeing a lot of videos about tips and tricks for things relating to living on campus this summer. If you have any comments or questions you would like answered, feel free to give me a shoutout on our Twitter, Instagram, or through an E-mail!

Hometown: Asheville, NC

Year: Junior

Major: Communications (Media Production)

Where I’ve Lived On Campus: Hinton James, Morrison

Campus Involvement: Executive Producer for Carolina Film Association

Email: luxtegan@live.unc.edu

Let me start off by saying that living on campus is a crucial part of the illusive Carolina Experience. My experience living on campus can be summed up in a single word, and that word is family. UNC is a big school, and it keeps on getting larger with each new class. It can be intimidating moving to a place full of strangers, and for some it can be overwhelming. However, I am 100% certain that living on campus is the easiest way to become immersed in everything Carolina has to offer. Living in the dorms puts you in close proximity to friends, class, dinning halls, libraries, you name it! I can attest to the fact that residential housing made me love this campus and all the people that are a part of it.

On the day my random roommate and I chose our freshman year dorm, I did not know anything about campus. My online efforts rendered maps of a place I had never seen before and pictures of dorms that all looked the same. Similar to the process of throwing a dart blindfolded, we randomly picked Hinton James, the largest dorm on campus. Although I thought I would have perfered a small dorm at the time, it turned out to be one of the best happy-accident moments of my life. It was in Hinton James (natively referred to as HoJo) that I developed lasting friendships in a suite on the 8th floor. It was there that I learned how to serve a volleyball, where I had my first cram mesh for a final, and my first time setting fire to a microwave.

My point being, college is full of ups and downs, of successes and failures. The best way to power through these next 4 years is with others. I would not be where I am today without the support of my friends from on-campus housing, and I can assure you that you will meet someone in your dorm that years from now you can’t imagine living without.